Conventional electronic payment transaction networks provide a network for banks, credit card companies, merchants, and customers to complete transactions electronically. Merchants or customers may pay transaction fees for each transaction. Payment transactions using credit cards, for example, are carried out by the merchant obtaining the customer's sixteen digit primary account number (PAN), card security code (CSN), card verification value (CVV), expiration date, zip code and/or other identifying information of the customer. In order to obtain an authorization, the customer's account information is then transmitted across the electronic payment transaction network to the bank associated with the customer's card, then to a credit card company, and then back to the merchant. Following authorization, the merchant later submits purchases for payment. Merchants typically submit credit card purchases in batches to banks (often submitting the day's receipts at the close of the business day) in order to obtain the previously authorized purchase. Batched transactions are then routed through the card network to the appropriate credit card company. The credit card companies deduct interchange fees from each transaction and return the remaining amount back to the bank. The bank then deducts its own discount fee and sends the remaining amount to the merchant. The customer is then billed. Multiple days are typically required to complete the entire transaction, and the customer must provide the merchant with multiple types of identifying information that is sent over the merchant's network. These conventional networks resolve transactions using unified data transactions that combine the customer information and the merchant information into a single message that contains sufficient information for the payment processor to complete the transaction.
Payment transaction networks may include digital wallets that conduct transactions using smartphone software applications allowing customers to access multiple accounts (credit, bank, or loyalty accounts) without use of a physical credit card. The transaction information in a digital wallet transaction may be transmitted to the merchant, such as via near field communication (NFC) technology of the customer's smart phone or other client device in concert with a point-of-sale (POS) terminal or device. Alternative to the use of a smartphone software application and NFC, a user may be prompted at a merchant's POS device or online to enter the customer's digital wallet account information (such as an email address, username, or password) to complete a transaction. Online transactions may also be conducted using customer digital wallet account information or individual customer account information via websites associated with merchants. These conventional digital wallet transactions also combine customer information and merchant information into a unified transaction that is sent in for payment processing.
Some payment transaction networks include digital currency secured by cryptography. These digital currencies, often called cryptocurrency, provide means of conducting entirely electronic transactions. However, cryptocurrencies are high risk, decentralized forms of currency, limiting its capability of use in many merchant transactions. Virtual currency may be sent from one user to another by specifying an originating address, an amount, and a recipient address. Transaction history and account balances of each address are public.